George Bailey's mighty form across the opening two one-dayers against India, including against their renowned spin attack, has strengthened his claims to earn a recall to the Twenty20 team he used to captain for the World Twenty20 in March.

Bailey's century and unbeaten half-century were pivotal to Australia taking a 2-0 lead in the five-match series.

While Bailey's great form has extended his mighty record against India - after 10 matches he is averaging 95.86 - it also entrenched what has been a remarkable start to his late-blooming international career.

The 33-year-old made his one-day debut almost four years. In his 65 matches he has scored more runs than any Australian at the same stage of their one-day career, with 2424 runs at an average of 44.89. Furthermore, no Australian has reached 50 as often as he has in that time: 21, two more than Dean Jones.

His performances have also helped cover from the loss of experience caused by the retirements of Michael Clarke and Brad Haddin after last year's World Cup.

"He's the 'elder statesman' in the group, if you like," said teammate John Hastings, describing Bailey's contributions as "enormous".

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One of the most satisfying aspects for Bailey, and Australian selectors, about his form so far in the series has been his proficiency against spin, something that has typically been a weakness. In the total of 11 overs he has faced from India's spinners R. Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja he has scored 61 runs, barely below a run a ball.

When Australia played their one-day series against England after the Ashes, the right-hander often tried to use the reverse sweep to spinners Moeen Ali and Adil Rashid. While he had little success early doors, he has demonstrated in the first two matches of this series how much he has improved.

Given coach Darren Lehmann's positive view about that stroke, that it is a legitimate tool to score and change the field, Bailey's improvement should bolster his claims to be part of not only the squad for the World Twenty20 but the first-choice XI.

"The constant change in techniques and the way he needs to adapt his game has been great. He just keeps coming up with a recipe for scoring runs. Hats off to him. I think it's been brilliant," Hastings said of Bailey.

"The great thing about George is he will always try and get better, always try to manipulate his game to succeed. The way he played the spin in Perth the other night was brilliant. Devastating, really. He went out and attacked them.

"I think he's definitely got the strings to his bow to be able to succeed at the [T20] world cup, for sure."

Before this series Bailey had been in great Big Bash League form for Hobart, scoring 240 runs at an average of 60 and a strike rate of 150.

Australia are likely to name their 15-man squad for the tournament after the three-match T20 series against India at the end of the month.